diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 97fadf5ee..529da8892 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 absl-py
 cirq-core~=1.0
-numpy~=1.16
+numpy>=1.26.0
+# The global option to pybind11 makes it include CMake files in a location where
+# CMake will find them. It makes a crucial difference in some environments.
 pybind11[global]
 typing_extensions
 setuptools